The Brains Of It All
by GoldGuardian2418
Summary: When Ally is struggling with her math, one smart alien steps in to help. Rated T. Some spoilers for the Ben 10 Omniverse three-part series "Duel of The Duplicates".


**Ally meets Brainstorm. Ally belongs to Sparkling Lover and I only own Rachel. All other characters belong to their respective owners.**

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**The Brains Of It All**

Ally looked at her math book again, sighing. She was at the Grant Mansion doing her homework and she was learning about Square Root in Math, but it was a little difficult for her to understand, since it didn't completely run like division or follow the rules of division that she knew. It was a bit like division, but a little more complex. She kept trying to get the answers she was looking for, but slumped in her chair when she kept getting the wrong answer. She was about ready to cry in frustration as she had been looking at it for two hours and still didn't get it.

She closed her book with a sigh. "Man, I need a break," she said aloud. "I don't know if I'll ever get this Math. It's too hard."

Ally got up and left her work there, first going out on the porch for some fresh air. Rachel had to finish up some stuff at work and said she'd be back in a little while and Sasha was on a field trip, volunteering as a tour guide assistant for a first and second grade class and wouldn't be back until much later.

Ally then went back inside and noticed how her Math book was open to the homework she had been trying to figure out. She was puzzled. "I know I closed my Math book," she said. "So who opened it?"

"My apologies," said an accented voice. "I was simply wondering what was causing you so much grief that you looked absolutely frustrated."

Ally looked across the room and saw what looked like a crab looking at her with thoughtful green eyes and she screamed loudly, quickly running down the hallways to get away from this monster, who she saw raced after her.

"Come back!" he called to her, but she kept running until she was outside and ran into the woods, not even noticing she was being watched by someone as she ran and suddenly came to a cliff, stopping herself in time from falling as she screamed again.

Something big and black jumped in front of her, shielding her with its weapon ready when the crab creature who had scared Ally came out and the person in front of Ally dropped his protective stance.

"Brainstorm?" asked a familiar voice and both the crab and the young girl saw it was Tetrax. "What?"

"I'm afraid the girl behind you was startled by my appearance and I couldn't calm her down," said the crab, looking a bit embarrassed.

"Tetrax?" asked Ally as the bounty hunter turned to her.

"It's okay, kiddo," he said, rubbing Ally's back to calm her down.

"I'm very sorry for frightening you, Ally," said the crab, coming closer. Ally now looked at him differently now that she knew his name. "I was simply looking over your homework and wondering what was difficult for you to understand about it."

She looked at him. "We learned about Square Root," she said. "But I can't get the right answer and I've tried to. It doesn't follow the rules of division."

Brainstorm lightly chuckled. "I'm afraid it doesn't follow the first rules of division closely," he agreed. "But it follows the higher-up rules of division."

Ally looked confused as she walked back to the mansion with Brainstorm and Tetrax. "The higher-up rules?" she asked the Cerebrocrustacean, who chuckled a little.

"I can translate your math to where you can understand it better," he said. "Will that be alright?"

Ally nodded. "I'd like to see how it all works," she admitted.

"Very well."

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Rachel came home from work and checked on Ally and saw she was working on her homework with Brainstorm. "Do you see how it fits in?" he asked her gently.

"Like this?" asked the young girl as she worked out the problem and got it right.

"Very good, Ally," said Brainstorm with a smile. "You've got it!"

"Thanks to you," she said.

"That brain of yours is certainly amazing, Brainstorm," said Rachel, coming in and making the two turn to her. "But, I still don't know if Cerebrocrustaceans are smarter than Galvans, or the other way around, although with Galvans having two brains, one would think they'd be the smarter ones."

"Galvans have two brains?" asked Ally.

Rachel nodded. "One for the normal body functions and the other for their vast knowledge," she said. "But Cerebrocrustacean brains are much larger, so no one really knows which one is smarter. I think their intellect is at a tie."

Ally suddenly had a thought. "Well, if they're so smart, how come they haven't figured it out yet?" she asked.

"Figured what out, Ally?" asked Brainstorm.

"Well, if your brain power is pretty much the same, wouldn't it be smarter to combine that brain power instead of acting like babbling clowns at a circus?"

Rachel just barely held in her laughter on that one, but she had to admit, her cousin was smart. "I think you've just been outsmarted by a girl whose brain is a sixteenth of your large brain, Cerebrocrustacean," she said with a huge smile.

Brainstorm gave them both a look. "Saying you homo sapiens are smarter than me, are you?" he asked and then looked thoughtful. "Well, I know how to deal with such egos."

Rachel and Ally took off with Brainstorm following them, both laughing. "His knowledge is flatter than a crab!" the older girl laughed, unable to resist teasing her friend, who grinned to himself.

"Oh, that does it. I'm calling for backup," he said.

"Already done," said Tetrax who appeared and grabbed the girls, handing Ally to Brainstorm who began tickling the smaller girl with his pincher claws, being careful not to puncture her skin. Ally laughed as she tried to get away, but couldn't. Rachel was in a similar predicament with Tetrax and couldn't stop laughing enough to get away.

But the tickling didn't last long as Brainstorm stopped and helped Ally up and Tetrax did the same for Rachel. Both girls laughed.

"It's kind of hard to win in a fight that requires brains when your opponent has more brain power," said Rachel.

"Maybe, but it's great to have when figuring out homework that requires those brains," said Ally.

Everyone chuckled and agreed to that.

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**How was it? Please review, but no flames.**

**GoldGuardian2418**


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